Texas Boot Company Now Offering Gator Hunts

A Texas-based boot maker is taking custom-made alligator boots to the subsequent degree by giving prospects the total expertise of searching their very own bootleather. Beginning this fall, Republic Boot Co. is providing a bundle deal the place prospects can go on a guided alligator hunt, after which have the conceal from their gator become a pair of handmade cowboy boots.

Many alligator hunters already make use of their hides for boots, luggage, and different leather-based items. However Republic’s proprietor Chris Conrad informed the Houston Chronicle it’s the primary time his firm has provided something like this. 

The package will value $5,000 per particular person for a bunch of 4 or extra, and people teams will hunt along with an expert clothes shop. Along with the {custom} boots, that value covers a head mount of the gator together with the guided hunt. The corporate will even present the mandatory tags, that are provided to personal landowners by Texas Parks and Wildlife, together with firearms and ammunition.

Turnaround time for the {custom} boots is eight months or extra, in keeping with the boot maker, because it takes not less than that lengthy to tan the gator hides.

Republic is already reserving guided hunts for teams this fall. The hunts will happen round Anahuac, the Alligator Capital of Texas, which lies on the coast alongside Trinity Bay inside a “core county” for gators — which means there’s sufficient habitat and alligators to assist searching, and their populations are carefully monitored by TPWD. The overall gator searching season for these core counties takes place from Sept. 11 by Sept. 30.  

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Conrad added that whereas most individuals affiliate gator searching with the “big, gnarly” beasts seen on TV, these bigger alligators sometimes have larger and rougher scales that aren’t ideally suited for leather-based working. He defined that the eight-footers generally present in East Texas are excellent for making boots. Republic’s bundle deal consists of an alligator as much as 8.5 ft lengthy, with larger gators costing additional.